The imminent re-entry of the Chinese space rocket “Long March” continues to cause a sensation.
The US could - but does not want to shoot the missile.
China rejects warnings of debris rain
Update from May 7, 12.20 p.m.:
Now the US Department of Defense is also dealing with the Chinese missile, the parts of which could fall uncontrollably to earth in the next few days. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin let journalists know on Thursday, US local time, that there were no plans to launch the Chinese Long March 5B space rocket. "We can do a lot of things, but we don't have a plan to shoot them right now," Austin said. He didn't say what else the Pentagon could do. The Pentagon expects the crash on Saturday or Sunday. An exact crash site is difficult to predict. “We hope it ends up in a place where it won't harm anyone,” Austin said.
A week ago, the heavy-lift rocket launched the first module of a new Chinese space station.
After separating from the component, the rocket began to orbit the earth in an irregular trajectory and has been slowly losing altitude since then.
Austin indirectly accused China of negligence: "I think that speaks to the fact that there is or should be a requirement for those of us who operate in space to work in a safe and thoughtful mode," the minister said .
Because about 70 percent of the earth's surface is covered by water, landing in the sea is most likely.
However, a crash in an inhabited area or onto a ship cannot be ruled out.
Some international experts warned of a possible rain of debris.
China: missile will simply burn up - "international practice"
China officially rejected warnings of an "uncontrolled" re-entry of the missile on Friday.
It is "very unlikely" that rocket fragments could cause damage, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, when asked by journalists in Beijing.
The rocket stage will burn up and destroy when it re-enters the earth's atmosphere.
"This is international practice."
Whatever happens: Germany is probably not in the risk zone that covers every part of the earth's surface between the 41.5.
Degrees north and 41.5.
Degrees south latitude.
In Europe, this includes parts of Spain, Italy and Portugal.
It also includes regions of North and South America and South Asia as well as all of Africa and Australia.
Large metropolises such as New York, Beijing or Hong Kong are also in this danger zone.
First report from May 6th:
Beijing / Washington / Munich
- China has an ambitious plan: to build its own station in space.
Last Thursday (April 29th) a rocket of the type “Long March 5B” brought the core module “Tianhe” (Heavenly Harmony) into space.
Debris from the launch vehicle threatens to fall to earth in the next few days.
Space experts have been warning for days of an "uncontrolled re-entry" of parts weighing tons when entering the earth's atmosphere.
The main rocket stage weighs 20 tons.
The design of the missile of the type "Long March 5B" is responsible for the uncontrolled reentry.
The launcher is said to be built in such a way that it simply re-enters the earth's atmosphere at an arbitrary location due to the force of attraction.
Experts accuse China of not adhering to today's standards.
It is "negligent".
“We don't know where,” the astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told the dpa news agency on Tuesday.
"In the worst case scenario, it will be like a small plane crashing and spreading over hundreds of kilometers," said McDowell.
It is uncertain how many fragments of the debris will be left after re-entry.
“But enough to cause damage,” the astrophysicist was certain.
During the first flight of the “Langer Marsch 5B” launcher, debris damaged several houses on the Ivory Coast.
That was in May 2020.
+
China wants to build its own space station: the Langer-Marsch-5B-Y2 launcher has brought the core module “Tianhe” (Heavenly Harmony) into space.
© Anonymous / CCTV via AP Video / dpa
China: No danger from rocket debris
China is now rejecting the danger of falling rocket debris.
The fragments are "very likely to fall into international waters, and people needn't worry," wrote the
Global Times
newspaper, often serving as an English-language propaganda organ,
on Thursday, referring to space experts.
The fact that the remains of rockets fell back to earth was "common in the aerospace industry," wrote the
Global Times
.
The paper saw behind the warnings “nothing more than Western hype about a 'threat from China'” in space technology.
The expert Wang Ya'nan, editor-in-chief of an aerospace magazine, was quoted as saying that China's space authorities had taken the risk of falling debris into account - when designing the rocket, choosing the launch site and the flight path.
+
Danger from the world dream: China rejects worries about the wreckage of its missile.
© Ju Zhenhua / via AP / dpa
China: According to experts, debris burns up when it re-enters the earth's atmosphere
"Most of the debris will burn when it re-enters the earth's atmosphere, leaving only a very small part that falls to the earth, which will potentially end up in areas far away from human activity or in the ocean," said Wang Ya'nan.
According to the
Global Times
,
experts also stated
that the rocket stage was built primarily from lightweight material that usually simply burns on re-entry.
China: Tiangong Space Station (Sky Palace)
China wants its space station "Tiangong" (Heavenly Palace) to be completed "by 2022".
From the space station in Wenchang, modules are brought into space with launch vehicles of the “Long March 5B” type.
If the technically obsolete international space station ISS goes out of service as planned in the coming years, China would be the only nation with a permanent outpost in space.
China lost control of the Chinese space laboratory Tiangong 1 (Heavenly Palace) in 2018.
Where the debris, which can weigh up to 100 kilograms, enters the earth's atmosphere, it had long been unclear, as
Merkur.de *
reported.
The orbit of Tiangong 1 was then tracked around the world.
(dpa / AFP / ml / ck) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
List of rubric lists: © Anonymous / CCTV via AP Video / dpa
